Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Rubensohn-Sammlung - Rubensohn Collection

During the 5th century BCE, while Egypt stood under Persian sovereignty, an Aramaeo-Jewish community settled on an island in the Nile River called Elephantine,
opposite the city Syene, today’s Aswan. The Hebrew Bible sources in
Jeremiah 41 and 2 Kings 25 refer to the existence of this Jewish
diaspora in Egypt; this description has been confirmed by a sensational discovery of Aramaic papyri
on Elephantine Island itself, whose extra-biblical texts provide
contemporaneous attestation to the community. By means of commercial
trade, Aramaic papyri from Elephantine Island emerged early in the
European antiquities market; in this way, Richard Lepsius would obtain
an Aramaic papyrus for his Egyptian and Nubian collection. This papyrus
was an Aramaic text from the Athanasi Collection, which Lepsius had
purchased on behalf of the Museum in Berlin in 1842. In Syene, the city
opposite Elephantine, a larger find of very well preserved papyri was
acquired by Robert Mond, and equally as many by Lady William Cecil.
These were published in 1906 by Sayce and Cowley. Subsequently, the
desire arose to complete the new holdings through systematic archaeological excavation, and thereby recover additional papyri prior to their deterioration. Under orders from the Königliche Museen zu Berlin, three
archaelogical campaigns on Elephantine Island were ultimately conducted
by the German archaeologist Otto Rubensohn and the German papyrologist
Friedrich Zucker between 1906 and 1908. Adolf Erman, the Director of the Egyptian Museum at the time, wrote concerning these events in his memoirs:

„Smaller excavations, which we had attempted at various
Egyptian sites with city ruins in order to obtain papyri, caused us far
fewer efforts and costs than these large excavations. Nevertheless, at
least one of them produced outcomes that are of the greatest scholarly
significance. It was known that the Fellahin had found papyrus in the
old city of Elelphantine Island, and in 1904 a large find came to light
there, which included Aramaic documents concerning Jewish soldiers; in
the Persian era a garrison of all manner of foreigners had been situated
in this border fortification. In order to follow this lead further,
Otto Rubensohn went to Elephantine in 1906, and at the same time French
scholars also went there with the same purposes. The general director
Maspero divided the excavation site between both parties, but we were
the ones who drew the better lot this time, because in our area, close
to the boundary of the French area, Rubensohn came upon a simple house,
and it turned out to contain the records of the Jewish community.“

Rubensohn also began his excavation report summary with a reference to the Aramaic document, stating:

„The Elephantine excavations are a result of the
discovery of a few Aramaic papyri, which have been published by Sayce
and Cowley as „Aramaic Papyri discovered at Assuan.“ Another visit to
Aswan in the year of the discovery, 1904, allowed me to gain the
acquaintance and the trust of those considered dealers and Sebakh
diggers. At my request they led me to discovery site of the papyri. The
site which they showed me did not lie in Aswan, but rather on the
western edge of the koms of Elephantine. It was a spot about 1 meter
north of the location at which we would later make the larger find of
Aramaic papyri. At my proposal the general administration of the royal
museums in Berlin shut down the work that had begun, and with customary
courteousness Mr. Maspero in the name of the Service des Antiquités
issued the requested permission to operate papyrus excavation on the
western half of the Koms of Elephantine.“

On December 5, 1904 the excavation license was issued to „Monsineur
le Docteur Rubensohn, in the name of the direction of the Royal Museums
of Berlin“ for the duration of one year; on November 8, 1905 and again
on December 10, 1906 additional one-year extensions were granted, and at
last the license was transferred to Friedrich Zucker. […]

Today, the largest portion of the papyri, ostraca, and seal stamps
that were granted via partage to the Berlin Museums on December 24, 1907
is found in the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung Berlin.

The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world, but I will also include other kinds of networked information as it comes available.

The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, my academic home at the time AWOL was launched. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique / early Islamic period.

AWOL is the successor to Abzu, a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, founded at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago in 1994. Together they represent the longest sustained effort to map the development of open digital scholarship in any discipline.